Populations and protection status

Persecuted and hunted nearly to extinction in the last two centuries, the history of grizzly bears is a sobering one.

In the U.S., the grizzly bear is listed as threatened and there are only five populations remaining in the Lower 48; including the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the Northern Continental Divide area around Glacier National Park, and the Cabinent-Yaak Mountains of northwest Montana. The Bitteroot Mountains of eastern Idaho and western Montana are also designated as a grizzly bear recovery zone, however this area does not contain any grizzlies at this time.

The other two remaining grizzly populations overlap into Washington state, including approximately 40-80 grizzly bears in the transboundary Selkirk Mountains of northeastern Washington, northwestern Idaho and southeastern British Columbia. In the U.S. North Cascades, it's believed there are currently fewer than 20 grizzly bears remaining, with an estimated six bears living on the Canadian side of the Cascade range.

There have also been confirmed grizzly bear sightings in the last decade near Cheshaw in Okanogan County and in the "wedge" area of Stevens County between the Kettle and Columbia Rivers.

What we are doing

Because grizzly bears are habitat generalists and disturbance sensitive animals with large home ranges, their conservation benefits dozens of other wildlife and sensitive habitats, from low-elevation wetlands to subalpine berry fields. Indicators of ecosystem health, grizzly bears mold their habitat in subtle but important ways.

As opportunistic omnivores, outside of western Alaska and British Columbia, grizzly bears have a typical diet of less than 10% fish or meat, much of that carrion from winter-killed deer and elk. Grizzly bears in coastal areas are an exception: for these bears, fish (mostly salmon) comprise a larger proportion of their diet.

Grizzlies are linked to wolves - the carrion of deer and elk killed by wolves is an important source of food for grizzly bears.

Grizzlies are incorrectly portrayed as voracious. In fact, they are normally reclusive creatures who act aggressively toward humans only in specific situations, usually when they feel startled or threatened by human actions, generally around bear cubs or food sources.

Grizzly bears differ from black bears by their prominent shoulder hump, longer claws, shorter ears, and a dish-faced profile. Black bears are also much more common. For example, the North Cascades of Washington has likely fewer than 10 grizzly bears but as many as 6,000 black bears.